How We Spent Christmas Day

I have to say that this Christmas made me a little nervous because it was our first one as our small little family.  We decided this year not to go back for Christmas and spend our money on a cruise last summer.  We've never spent Christmas together.  Even back in the states we traveled to California to spend with our cousins or the girls visited their Dad in Utah.  The girls were pretty nervous and because they're one of the older cousins in the Schultz family, they really hold the Christmas traditions as super important.  They were pretty nervous they wouldn't have a good year, but I assured them that most of the extended family was doing their own thing anyway.  They gave it a chance.   I think it turned out awesome.  Here's how we spent Christmas Day.

Christmas Morning

The favorite tradition!  waiting on the stairs for Christmas presents.  They wait until everyone is ready and then when the parents are ready at the bottom, they run down the stairs to see what Santa had brought.  They're allowed to look into their stocking and open any presents inside.  Then we started passing out the Homemade Presents.

Homemade Presents

To see what our Homemade Present tradition is, click here for the first post.

Present Opening

After we opened our Homemade Christmas presents, we also opened the rest of the presents under the tree. Another tradition the girls love is handing out the presents one at a time.  Then we all open one present at the same time, then go around the room and show everyone what they got.  This year I think was a really great Christmas. They got almost everything on their list and I was, for the first time, not nervous they were going to be disappointed.

I didn't catch very many pictures, but here are a few.  There's a video about 3 pictures down, which is of the big present we're getting them this year. We couldn't get a real one because of other circumstances, so we'll have to look in the next few weeks.  

Christmas Dinner

Xoe and Xanthe love having people over for dinner, so we invited a family for Christmas Dinner.   At the last minute they all got sick.  We weren't sure what to do for Christmas Dinner until at the last minute we received an invitation from the Bushman family.  My friend, Jenni, was visiting with her friend, Sammy, and I hadn't been able to see them yet.  I was so excited to go see them and it was perfect timing. we had a fabulous time.

One of my favorite moments was when Jenni's mother asked us to sing.  We weren't prepared so we just sort of sat down playing through Christmas songs.  We didn't sing anything as a performance, we just sort of sang at the piano.  We had such a great time, a lot of laughs and a ton of Christmas Spirit.  One of my favorite Christmases for sure.

Christmas Movie Night

One of our long-standing family Christmas traditions is to go to the movies on Christmas Day.  We left the Bushman's house to go to the movies on base.  The only movie was Walking with Dinosaurs in 3-D, one that Spencer has been counting down the days to see.  The girls reluctantly joined us but it was a fun family night.

What a great Christmas!!!  I love our little family!

Homemade Christmas-From Xanthe

Many of you know we started a new tradition last year.  For a very long time I've felt the loss of the "spirit of Christmas" and mulled many years on how to bring it back.  I hated the feeling of too many obligations (attending parties and giving random presents).  I wanted my family to start focusing on what it feels like to have the "Spirit of Christmas."  One of the ways was by having a homemade Christmas.  Each person puts a lot of thought into making a homemade gift for each member of the family.  It doesnt' have to be elaborate, but just personal and homemade for that person.

Last year was such a success.  Not only did each person spend most of the Christmas season thinking of what to make for their loved ones (instead of what they were going to "get"), they had more experience really FEELING how good it feels to give to another person.  And even though I was the one planning it, I insisted someone help Spencer make a gift for me.  Not that I cared about getting gifts, I just wanted Spencer to have more opportunities to feel how good it feels to give, more than receive.  

My favorite memory of last year was watching Spencer's excitement as he found his gifts he had made and watched each person open it.  He was shaking with anticipation and a huge smile was plastered all over his darling face.  It was exactly what I had wanted and anticipated he would feel.  Because this year we got to watch the videos from last year for him to relive his excitement and remember how good it felt to give more than receive.

My friend, Annie, caught on to the homemade Christmas idea and not only adopted it with her own family (which was a huge success), but she wrote an article for the local newspaper with about 20,000 readers.  Here's the link if you'd like to read up on it.  http://www.kaiserslauternamerican.com/the-perfect-gift/

So without further adieu, here is our 2013 Homemade Christmas.  

These are the gifts made and given by Xanthe...  She did such a great job and I am finding out how creative Xoe and Xanthe are!  Great job Xanthe!

For Dad

A personalized notebook with his initial on it.

For Mom

Coupons for lots of homemade gifts and services.  Yay!

Cookies in a Jar.

 For Xoe

Fingerless gloves.  The girls' favorite kinds.  Annie helped Xanthe with this.

For Spencer

Xanthe hand painted this picture of a steam engine. It's a Paint by Number but a very intricate one. It took her almost two weeks of working on it every night.  Such a great job, isn't it?

For the rest of the family, I have created separate posts. They are immediately following this post.  

Homemade Christmas-From Xoe

For a full description of our Homemade Christmas, see the more recent post called "Homemade Christmas-From Xanthe."

These gifts are made by Xoe.  She did such a great job planning her presents. She is such a good gift giver and had almost too many ideas for everyone. We had to narrow it down for her.  

For Dad

Dad does a really good job BBQ'ing but never has anything to put the meat in. I think he loved it.

For Mom

Homemade Bath Salts made with sugar, olive oil and essential oils with homemade labels. 

For Xanthe

Home is where the sparkles are.  These girls love California.  

For Spencer

Monster Shoes for Spencer made from paint cans.

Homemade Christmas-From Mom

For a full description of our Homemade Christmas, see the more recent post called "Homemade Christmas-From Xanthe."

These homemade presents are given by Mom.

For Dad & Spencer

Brian can never find pajama pants that fit him.  They're always too short. So I decided to make him some pajama pants with a "mini-me" version for Spencer, seeing as though they are best buddies and just like each other. I think they liked them, don't you?

For Xanthe & Xoe

Last year Xanthe and Xoe made Brian and I tie blankets from two fleece blankets bought at our fun little store called Kik down the street.  They mentioned this year that they wanted one too and I don't think they knew I heard.  They turned out really fun and the girls love them.

Homemade Christmas-From Dad

For a description of our Homemade Christmas, see the post called "Homemade Christmas-From Xanthe"

These gifts are homemade from Dad Brian.

For Mom

I didn't get a picture of this but it was a piece of paper rolled up like a scroll. On it had all of the projects around the house Brian is, or has already, fixed for me.  This was a big grand idea for me because there were a few I've been really wanting us to get to.  Brian is usually very good at not procrastinating, but there have just been a few projects that have fallen under the radar. I will get a picture of this paper he gave me and post it later hopefully.

For Xanthe & Xoe

Earring Holders with a gift certificate for Xanthe to get her ears re-pierced.  She let them close up and has been wanting them re-pierced for awhile.  I had told her she needed to earn the money for it, so this came as a fun surprise.

This is Xoe's earring holder.  I didn't get a picture with her mustache earrings and a 20 Euro gift certificate for some jewelry.

For Spencer

Spencer really loves Legos and Brian had this idea last year.  He got a huge Lego set we have been saying "no" to for a long time. Then he built it for Spencer. It's a huge set so it took quite a few hours to build. Spencer has been in heaven playing with this Lego steam train.

Look at how cute these darling hands are.

Our Christmas Eve Festivities

Me, Annie, Xanthe, Laura (Annie's sister visiting from Washington), Jason (Annie's husband) and Brian

Christmas Eve was spent with my dear friend, Annie Tintle and her family.  We love their family.  They are moving in June and we will be devastated.  Seriously. I get super sad when people leave but I've never had a kindred spirit like Annie.  So, of course we want to spend every waking moment together.  Only catch? She lives 1 1/2 hours from me.  But we try every minute to get together.

Harrison (Annie's oldest), two elders from our church and Xoe.

Xoe and Xanthe took a bunch of selfies on my phone.  How beautiful are they? I just had to post for my memories.

Spencer loves her kids!  You can't see Xanthe but she's trapped underneath.  Those are her black and white leggings.

Annie has caught on that caroling is becoming lost. No one wants to go.  No one wants people to come.   She was determined so she came up with something new and improved.  Mexican caroling!  It's a fun way and the only way she'll get her kids to go.  Singing Feliz Navidad complete with ukeleles, maracas and drums.  Next year sombreros will be added in. I have to tell you I was nervous at first but once we got out there, everyone LOVED it.  No one felt awkward and two American houses turned into 3 extra German houses.  The Germans even knew the song. :)  The first video is our practice. It was a bit rough and we got better, but this one is cute cuz you can see the kids dancing and singing.  

Check out this video.  Brian even got into it. Right at the beginning. Then he saw me recording and scooted back. Haha!

After hanging at Annie's, we headed home for our own Christmas Eve traditions.